That's very odd, because I just tried it and it worked perfectly. Given:
You can see the effects at http://theoldquarter.dyndns.org/~antonio/test/index and http://theoldquarter.dyndns.org/~antonio/test/index/ .Code:RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /~antonio/test/ RewriteRule ^index/?$ index.php [L]
These both give 404s, by the way, but if you notice the URI, it's pointing to index.php.
You might be running into some issues with the ^, though. Try this:
Or:Code:RewriteRule ^/index/?$ /index.php [L]
Only use the second one if the first one doesn't always work; I doubt it will make a difference. If only the second one works, try using:Code:RewriteRule ^/?index/?$ /index.php [L]
Where the only difference is the leading / on index.php. In theory, I don't think these should make any difference (i.e., none of them should work, either) but I'm not sure. Are you 100% certain that you can use mod_rewrite on your server?Code:RewriteRule ^index/?$ /index.php [L]